Messaging system and service

ABSTRACT

A method of modifying a data message during transmission through a data communications network, the data communications network being arranged to deliver messages under control of a network operator and including a first store-and-forward network node. The first store-and-forward network node is arranged to store data messages and forward the same to a recipient in dependence on status data corresponding to a terminal associated therewith. The method further includes receiving a message at a second store-and-forward node, wherein the second store-and-forward node is different from the first store-and-forward network node, arranging for the message to be modified before being forwarded from the second store-and forward node, and transmitting the message to the first store-and-forward network node for forwarding to the recipient.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/002,452filed Dec. 17, 2007, which is a divisional of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 10/555,543 filed Mar. 6, 2006, which is an application under 37USC 371 of International Application PCT/GB2004/001953 filed May 6,2004, which in turn claims the benefit of foreign priority of BritishPatent Application No. 0315984.5 filed Jul. 8, 2003, British PatentApplication No. 0311592.0 filed May 20, 2003, and British PatentApplication No. 0310366.0 filed May 6, 2003, the entire disclosure ofeach of which is incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to messaging systems, in particular but notexclusively to messaging carried out using wireless terminals, whichoperate in communications networks.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Currently the Short Message Service (SMS) is the medium of choice forpersonal messaging, and several companies have designed systems that areintended to include advertisement information in SMS messages. Forexample, International patent application WO 03/015430 describes aservice whereby advertisement data (including length of advertisement(number of characters), a preview of the advertisement and an identifierassociated with the advertisement provided by external sources) arestored on mobile terminal in a “local” store, and the user selects anadvert, from the store, to accompany an outgoing message. The terminalthen calculates a length available for text, and the sender is allowedto enter a message having a length up to the calculated length. Anoutgoing message is then created, comprising the advertisement IDassociated pith the selected advertisement and the user's message text,and having a header indicating that the message has advertising content.The outgoing message is then sent from the terminal and received by theSMSC, which checks the header of the message; any message having anidentifier corresponding to the advertisement type is passed to an “adserver”. The ad server processes the message, effectively selecting anadvertisement from a store, creating one or more messages that comprisethe selected advertisement and creating an SMS message that can be readby the recipient's mobile phone terminal.

Since advertisements are selected by the sender from those storedlocally on terminal, the terminal needs to be equipped with appropriatesoftware, and the currently selectable advertisement IDs need to bedistributed to all subscribing terminals. In addition, the SMSC has tobe equipped with some means of identifying these advertisement-typemessages from other types of messages in order to route hem to the adserver, Furthermore, since each SMS message is limited to 160characters, the ad server quite often creates a plurality of messages,which means that either the receiving terminal has to be equipped withsome software that concatenates the messages together in some elegantmanner (since presentation is very important with advertising), or thereceiving terminal simply displays the messages separately, as is thecase with none modified SMS messages exceeding 160 characters in lengthNeither of these is ideal from the point of view of convenience orpresentation.

The new messaging service, known as Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS),offers messages of unlimited size and content type that are compiled asHTTP messages, which means that they offer a transaction capability withpossible super-distribution of content along with accuracy, tracking andfeedback of messages. However, despite the fact that many mobiletelephones have imaging and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)capabilities, and despite the fact that the Multimedia Message Servicewould appear to be a natural choice of messaging format for includingadvertising content, there is no guarantee that MMS will become asubiquitous as SMS. This is due to several reasons, namely that there isa perceived high cost of Multimedia messaging; that SMS fulfils basicpersonal messaging needs; and that rich media messaging requires moreimagination and preparation by the user.

An object of the present invention is to provide a convenient method ofmodifying messages, which, from the point of view of the end user, issimple to use.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided amethod of modifying a message sent through a data communicationsnetwork, the message including transmission data identifying one or moredestinations of said message and a message body identifying contentthereof which is specified by a sending party, the method including:

selecting data, in response to receiving a said message, on the basis ofat least one parameter that is not directly related to the location ofthe sending party, wherein the said selected data are not directlyrelated to the content of the message;

modifying said message so as to include the selected data therein; and

transmitting the modified message to said one or more destinations inaccordance with the transmission data.

Embodiments of the invention thus provide a means of interceptingmessages sent from A to B, modifying the message in a way that isunrelated to the content of the message, and transmitting the messageonto its destination (B). Since the message is not modified by theterminal associated with the sending party, a party can take part in amessage modification service according to the invention using acompletely standard terminal.

In one arrangement, the message sent through the data communicationsnetwork is an MMS message, and the modifying step includes addingselected data to the MMS message, and transmitting it as an MMS message;and in another arrangement the message originates from the sender as anSMS message, and the moping step includes changing the SMS message intoan MMS message, which includes both the content of the original SMSmessage and the data selected according to the method. In yet furtherarrangements, the message sent through the data communications networkis an email message, and the modifying step includes adding the selecteddata to the email message and transmitting it as an email message;alternatively the message can be transmitted as GPRS data packets andthe recipient is notified of the presence of a suitably modified messageby means of an SMS message, whereupon the recipient can request deliveryof the modified message in the form of GPRS data.

In order to participate in a service embodying this method, parties arerequired to subscribe to the service; subscription can be performed byentering data into a WAP page that is downloaded to the user's terminalor by entering data by means of a data gathering application running onthe terminal, The subscribing step involves registering personalcharacteristics and statistics, and explicitly consenting tomodification of their messages,

The parameter used in the selecting step can be related to one or moreof these personal characteristics, such as age, occupation, preferences,context (work, play) etc.; or related to environmental factors such astime of day, day of the week etc, Alternatively the parameter can beselected at random. Preferably the method includes keeping a track ofdata that have been selected, so as to ensure that the same data are notsent to the same person twice. The parameter may be a value indicating anumber of modified messages that a recipient is willing to receive, inwhich case the method includes checking how many messages the recipienthas already received and only modifying the message in the event thatthe specified number has not been exceeded.

The selectable data are preferably stored in a data store, such as adatabase, and, in order to enable personalized selection thereof, theselectable data are associated with data describing preferences, time ofday, location, occupation, context etc. that characterize the selectabledata and that correspond to the parameters. This therefore provides ameans of selecting data that are suited to the sender and/or recipient.

The selecting step can include selecting data on the basis of a furtherparameter which may be related to the location of the sending and/orreceiving party. Thus, for example, if the location of the sending partyis identified to be in the vicinity of a football ground, the selectionof data can include selecting data relating to football. Alternativelyor additionally the further parameter can relate to the content of themessage specified by the sending party. For example, the parameter couldbe words within the message; in some instances certain words can belinked with certain selectable data—for example, if the message includesthe phrase “You should see my new shoes!”, and the word “shoes” islinked to images indicative of a shoe retailer—then the selection ofdata can include data corresponding to one of these images.

Preferably the selectable data are categorised in some manner into aplurality of categories, and the sending and/or receiving party canspecify a specific category of interest. Conveniently the categories canbe previewed and selected either via the Web or via WAP-pages. Thiscategory selection provides a further means of personalizing the datathat are selected for inclusion in the message , one arrangement thecategories are advertisement campaigns, which have a limited life span.When a campaign ends the subscribers who have selected that campaign(i.e. that category) can automatically be offered a new campaign of thesame genre, e.g. via a MMS message containing new campaign details,terms and conditions.

Thus with embodiments of the present invention outgoing messages can bedecorated with branded rich media content. This content can betag-formatted advertising but could also be user generated or receivedfrom any 3^(rd) party, being appended to messages to as to providesponsored terminal-to-terminal store-and-forward messaging.

The selected data can include one or more separate entities, forexample, one entity can be an animation and another, an auto-play audioclip. The entities can be combined in a single message.

Since, in the first instance, the criterion used to select data to beused in message modification does not rely on input from the sendingparty when the message is composed, the mobile terminals do not requireany additional software over and above the standard operating systemsoftware.

For the message sent through the data communications network to berouted to a service performing the method described above, the user doesnot need to explicitly enter details of the service (in terms of anetwork destination ID) on his terminal. Instead configuration messagescan automatically be sent to the terminal when the user subscribes tothe service. This feature of automatic modification of terminal settingsforms a second aspect of the present invention.

In accordance with this second aspect of the invention there is provideda method of configuring a data message for transmission through a datacommunications network, wherein the data communications networkcomprises at least one store-and-forward network node arranged to storesaid data messages and forward the same to the or each recipient independence on status data corresponding to a terminal associatedtherewith, the method comprising:

receiving a configuration message identifying a store-and-forwardnetwork node;

selecting store-and-forward configuration settings from saidconfiguration message;

creating a said data message, said data message comprising transmissiondata identifying one or more destinations of said message and a messagebody identifying content thereof; and

transmitting said created data message in accordance with said selectedstore-and-forward configuration settings,

wherein said configuration message identifies a store-and-forwardnetwork node to which a said data message is to be sent for modificationof the content thereof during transmission of said message.

This configuration message can be sent to a subscribing mobile terminalvia Over-The-Air (OTA) settings. The configuration message identifies astore-and-forward network node, which, when the term is sending MMSmessages, corresponds to an MMSC other than the default networkoperator's MMSC, and is essentially a proxy MMSC. Subsequently createdmessages are thereafter sent to the identified store-and-forward networknode, which is arranged to perform a method according to the firstaspect of the invention. Having completed the method, the identifiedstore-and-forward network node transmits the modified message to theconventional store-and-forward server (MMSC), which is typically ownedby the network operator.

Since the method is performed on a bespoke store-and-forward networknode, a further advantage of embodiments of the invention is that itdoes not interfere with existing services, which means that subscriberscan still receive MMS messages from the default (network operator's)MMSC.

The personal details entered by subscribers are conveniently stored in adatabase that is independent of network operator, which facilitatesproviding initial distribution statistics and tracking eventualsuper-distribution of multimedia content across various networkoperators.

In addition to providing a system for modifying personal messagesemanating from individual subscribers, the invention can be applied tomodify messages emanating from information providers and the like.Accordingly, in a third aspect of the present invention there isprovided a method of modifying a message sent through a datacommunications network, the method comprising:

receiving, at a second network node, a message from a first networknode, the message having a message body comprising first data, andtransmission data identifying a destination of said message, wherein thefirst data have been created by an information service;

selecting second data, in response to receiving said message;

modifying said message so as to include the selected second data in themessage body thereof; and

transmitting the modified message to said destination in accordance withthe transmission data.

Further features and advantages of the invention will become apparentfrom the following description of preferred embodiments of theinvention, given by way of example only, which is made with reference tothe accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a mobile network arranged inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of data exchanges between componentsof the system illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing components of the Web and WAP servicesserver shown in FIGS. 1 and 2;

FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram showing components of the proxymessage server MMSC shown in FIGS. 1 and 2;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating an MMS message whentransmitted from a sender terminal to the proxy message server MMSCshown in FIG. 2;

FIGS. 6 and 7 show user content parts of the MMS message of FIG. 5 whentransmitted from a sender terminal;

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram showing sub-steps of the data exchanges shownin FIG. 2;

FIG. 9 shows content parts of an MMS message when modified according toan embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 10 a shows a Web page allowing a subscriber to select a category ofinterest;

FIG. 10 b is a schematic illustration of category information and datacorresponding thereto as stored in the database shown in FIGS. 1 and 2;

FIG. 11 is a schematic illustration of an alternative configuration ofcomponents of a mobile network according to a second embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 12 is a schematic illustration of an alternative configuration ofcomponents of a mobile network according to a third embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 13 is a schematic illustration of an alternative configuration ofcomponents of a mobile network according to a fourth embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 14 is a schematic illustration of an alternative configuration ofcomponents of a mobile network according to a fifth embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 15 is a schematic illustration of an alternative configuration ofcomponents of a mobile network according to a sixth embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 16 is a schematic illustration of a first embodiment of componentsof a mobile network according to a second aspect of the presentinvention; and

FIG. 17 is a schematic illustration of a second embodiment of componentsof a mobile network according to a second aspect of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the invention are concerned with modification of datamessages en route for a recipient. Specifically, embodiments areconcerned with performing a modification that is independent of thesubject matter of the data messages, instead basing the modification onsome parameter that is extrinsic to the content of the message. Thenature of this modification, and the criteria used to make themodification, will be described in detail later in the description, butfirst a description of the infrastructure needed to support themodification will be presented.

FIGS. 1 and 2 show an example of a data messaging system 1 within whichembodiments of a first aspect of the invention operate. In FIG. 2, thearrows indicate data flows within the data messaging system 1 and theblocks indicate components of the data messaging system 1. Thisembodiment, hereinafter referred to as a message modification service,is concerned with Multimedia messages (MS messages), but the messagescould be short messages (SMS), email messages, bespoke messages in theform of GPRS data and/or streamed data; the specific arrangement of thedata messaging system 1 is dependent on the type of message beingtransmitted, and alternative configurations are described later.

In the arrangement shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a terminal T1 communicateswith various network devices within the data messaging system 1. Theterminal T1 may be a wireless terminal such as a mobile phone, a PDA ora Laptop computer. The data messaging system 1 comprises a WAP gatewayG_OP, which is typically a network operator's WAP gateway; a Web and WAPservices server S1, with which the terminal T1 communicates; first andsecond store-and-forward message servers MMSC_1, MMSC_OP, the secondbeing a network operator's store-and-forward message server configuredto store and forward messages in accordance with conventional methods;and a database DB1, arranged to store data in respect of subscribers,terminals such as T1 and content data.

In one arrangement the first message server MMSC_1, together with theWeb and WAP services server S1, is arranged to operate inside thenetwork operator's network, whilst the database DB1 is located within aproprietary network, which means that it is independent of any specificnetwork operator and can be shared across a plurality of networkoperators. The database DB1 can either be provided by two separatedatabases 20, 24, as shown in FIG. 1, or by a single database, as shownin FIG. 2.

Referring to FIG. 2, the Web and WAP services server S1 can be accessedby a user of the terminal T1 actuating a URL corresponding to the serverS1, Referring to FIG. 3, in addition to standard CPU, memory, data bus,Input/Output ports, data storage, and operating system programs, theserver S1 comprises registration software 301, which processes requeststo subscribe to the message modification service, while additionallyreceiving identification and preference data in relation to thesubscriber; category selection software 303, which processes incomingcategory selection requests; and authentication software 305, whichauthenticates incoming requests for access to the category selectionsoftware. The data selection, identification and preference data aresubsequently stored in the database DB1 for subsequent access by thefirst message server MMSC_1. The server S1 can either be provided by twoseparate servers 22, 26 (with the registration software 301 on server 26and the authentication and category selection software 303, 305 onserver 22) as shown in FIG. 1, or by a single server, as shown in FIG.2.

The first message server MMSC_1 can be considered a “proxy”store-and-forward message server, which is located between the networkoperator's WAP gateway G_OP and the network operator's message serverMMSC_OP. Referring to FIG. 4, the MMSC_1 comprises standard processingcomponents, and includes conventional software or hardware means for:notifying, in response to receipt of an MMS, the sending party that ithas accepted the MMS; interrogating subscriber databases to determinewhether the intended recipient has an MMS-compatible phone; informingthe intended recipient that an MMS is available; and, in response to arequest from the recipient, sending the message thereto (shown incombination in box labeled 410). In addition to these standardcomponents, the MMSC_1 includes selecting software 401 for selectingdata to add to an incoming message (described in more detail below),message modifying software 403 for modifying the incoming message so asto include the selected data (described in more detail below); and anexternal application interface (EAIF) 405 that is configured to enablethe message server MMSC_1 to communicate with the operator's messageserver MMSC_OP, specifically to forward the modified messages to theoperator's MMSC_OP in accordance with standard methods.

The selecting software 401 is arranged to identify sender and/orrecipient information from an incoming message and select, by accessingthe database DB1, the sender and/or recipients' permission andpreference settings in order to determine how to modify the incomingmessage. The modifying software 403 is arranged to modify the incomingmessage in accordance with input from the selecting software 401,sending the modified message to the recipient m one of a plurality offormats (e.g. SMS or MMS). Preferably the proxy (or first) messageserver MMSC_1 communicates with the database DB1 via a Internet virtualprivate network (VPN) connection, and is arranged to cache, e.g. in anSQL database, permission and preference information so that it canoperate the service even in case of VPN outages.

The registration software 301, category selection software 303,authentication software 305, selecting software 401 and modifyingsoftware 403 are preferably written in the Java programming language.The server S1 could, for example, be an Apache HTTP server, and theproxy message server MMSC_1 could be a J2EE JMS Server (seehttp://openjms.sourceforge.net/). The registration software 301,category selection software 303 and authentication software 305 could beJava™ servlet containers configured to run within a Java platform suchas Java 2 Platform Standard Edition v14.1 (for further information seeresources available from Sun Microsystems™ e.g. athttp://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.1/ andhttp://java.sun.com/products/servlet/index.html). The skilled personwill appreciate that the software could be written in any suitablelanguage.

Referring back to FIG. 2, one way of setting up an account with, andmaking use of, the message modification service according to thisembodiment will now be described. At step 201 the user enters the URLcorresponding to the Web and WAP services server S1, which causes theregistration software 301 to send a Web page from the server S1, via theWAP gateway G_OP, where it is modified, using conventional techniques,into a format suitable for display on the user's terminal T1, and sentto the terminal T1. The user then enters various registration detailsinto the web page and the terminal T1 sends the details to the serverS1, via the WAP gateway G_OP. Referring back to FIG. 2, as part of theregistration process, the user enters personal information details, suchas name, address, terminal details (including capabilities), sex,occupation, interests, etc. and these details are stored, at step 202 b,in the database DB1. Also a part of the registration process, theregistration software 301 sends the user a user ID and password foraccessing the server S1.

Alternatively the terminal T1 could have, stored thereon, an applicationarranged to capture such demographic data (not shown in the Figures) andwhich encapsulates the captured data in SMS messages or as GPRS packetsand then transmits the same to the server S1. A suitable applicationcould be transmitted to the terminal T1 (e.g. via GPRS or Bluetooth) inresponse to a request received by the server S1 from the terminal T1 andwould be of a format suitable for cooperating with the operating systemin use on the terminal T1 (alternatively the application could bepre-loaded onto the terminal T1).

Having completed the registration process, the registration software 301sends, at step 202 a, data via an Over-The-Air (OTA) MMS settingsmessage, to the terminal T1, with details of the proxy message serverMMSC_1 In response to receiving this message, the operating systemprograms on the terminal T1 automatically configure the default MMSCsettings including the network address (URL) of the proxy message serverMMSC_1 in accordance with the settings in the message. This thereforemeans that any MMS messages subsequently sent from the terminal T1 willbe sent to the proxy message server MMSC_1 in the first instance. Forfurther information regarding use of OTA protocol for the delivery ofdata to a WAP client from a WAP server, the reader is referred toliterature available from the WAP Forum Ltd., in particular “WirelessApplication Protocol, PUSH OTA Protocol Specification”, published 16Aug. 1999, available fromhttp://www.wapforum.org/what/technical/PROP-PushOTA-19990816.pdf.

In addition to storing and processing registration requests, the serverS1 is arranged to display, on request, a plurality of selectablecategories, from which the subscriber can select. The subscriber canattempt to access the server S1 at any time, causing the authenticationsoftware 305 to authenticate or otherwise the access request. Severalauthentication methods are possible, one being based on the user'smobile phone number or the terminal ID (this being identifiable from,egg. the header of a message associated with the access request), andanother being via a web page having data entry fields corresponding touser name and password. Once authenticated, the user can select acategory from the plurality, causing the selected category to be storedin the database DB1, along with other data associated with this user.The categories represent subject areas of interest—e.g. types of music,football, types of drinks etc. These selected category data, along withthe user data stored at step 202 b, are then available for use by theselecting software 401 naming on the proxy message server MMSC_1, aswill be described in more detail below. Alternatively, and in the eventthat the terminal T1 has a suitable local application stored thereon,the category data could be sent from the terminal T1 to the server S1;in such an arrangement the category data from which selection is to bemade could be made available to the terminal T1 by means of the serverS1 sending category data to the terminal T1 via SMS messages or as GPRSpackets.

The aspect of category selection is not essential to the invention, butis a preferred feature, since it enables the proxy message server MMSC_1to select content that matches some aspect of the sender's interests.Further aspects of this category selection are described in more detailbelow.

Having registered with the service and modified the store-and-forwardmultimedia message server settings on the terminal T1, any subsequentlysent MMS messages by the terminal T1 will be directed to the proxymessage server MMSC_1 and modified thereby, as will now be describedwith reference to FIGS. 5-7. At step 203, a MMS message is sent by theterminal T1; this message is encapsulated in an HTTP POST messageincluding HTTP header 502 which identifies with the appropriate URL thatthe proxy message server MMSC_1 is the HTTP message recipient. The HTTPmessage body includes MMS header portion 504 and US body portion 510 TheMMS body portion 510 includes one or more user content parts 512, 514,such as those illustrated in FIGS. 6 and 7.

At step 204, the MMS message 500 is received and stored by the proxymessage server MMSC_1, in accordance with conventional techniques and atstep 205, the selecting software 401 selects content data from thedatabase DB1. Referring to FIG. 8, this step involves performing aplurality of sub-steps: firstly identifying (sub-step 801) the senderand recipient of the message Warts 506, 508); secondly retrieving(sub-step 803) user data from the database DB1 corresponding to thesender and/or recipient; and thirdly applying (sub-step 805) a filteringalgorithm to the content data stored in the database DB1, using the userdata retrieved at sub-step 803, in order to select content dataappropriate to the received MMS. The nature of this filtering algorithmis described in more detail below.

Once the content data have been selected, the message modificationsoftware 403 modifies, at step 206, the MMS that was stored at step 204.An MMS so-modified is shown in FIG. 9: the MMS is encapsulated in anHTTP POST message 900 including HTTP header 902 which identifies thenetwork operator's message server MMSC_OP as the HTTP message recipient;the HTTP message body includes MMS header portion 504 and MMS bodyportion 510. The MMS message body portion 510 includes, in addition toone or more user content parts 512, 514, one or more content parts 916,918. The HTTP message can also include an extension HTTP header 901,which includes charging information. At step 207 the modified MMS istransmitted to the network operator's message server MMSC_OP, andthereafter is delivered to the recipient (T2) in accordance withconventional methods.

As stated above, embodiments of the invention are concerned withmodification of data messages en route for a recipient. The use of OTAmessages to modify settings on a terminal, for use in re-directingmessages whose content is to be modified without direct input from thesender is new. Thus the data messaging system 1, the proxy messageserver MMSC_1 and the functionality provided by the Web and WAP server S1 described above are new. Since the nature of this modification is notdirectly dependent on any input from the sender of the message, neitherthe sender nor recipient is required to modify their terminal.Furthermore, and as stated above, the idea of using OTA settings todirect messages to devices associated with the service means that theterminals do not need to be modified in this respect either, Thistherefore means that the service can be used independent of terminaltype, which is a significant advantage.

The aspects of data selection—step 205 (and sub-steps 801, 803,805)—will now be described in more detail.

As described above, once a user has subscribed to the messagemodification service, be can subsequently access the server S1 tospecify a category of interest, which is then used by the proxy messageserver MMSC_1 in selection of data when modifying an incoming message.In one embodiment the data to be included in the messages (sub-step 805)is branded rich media content, in which case the categories from whichthe subscriber can select corresponds to a brand and the content isadvertising content, referred to herein as a Tag element.

FIG. 10 a shows a Web page 1000 allowing a participating message senderto select a category 1001, and an example of a tag 1003 within one ofthe categories; modification of a currently selected category can bemade via item 1005 on the Web page 1000. FIG. 10 b shows categoryinformation 1001 and content (Tags) 1011 corresponding thereto, andshows that each category 1010 has a plurality of Tags 1013 associatedtherewith, Once a category has been selected by the sender, and when anMMS message is subsequently sent by the corresponding sender (step 203)the selecting software 401 running on the proxy message server MMSC_1selects (sub-step 805) one or more of the Tags in the selected categoryto be added to the message being sent.

There are several advantages associated with this category feature ofthe invention, a first of which is that it provides a means of ensuringthat content that is selected by the selecting software 403 is relevantto the sender's and/or recipient's interests, thereby removing the needfor the sender to include this information in the messages to bemodified. A second advantage is associated with the fact that thecategories are stored and maintained in a central location. In the eventof a change of category (which is common in the field of advertising),the change only needs to be effected at a central location, rather anhaving to distribute data identifying the updated categories to eachsubscriber to the message modification service.

As described above, at sub-step 805, the selecting software 401 appliesa filtering algorithm to select an appropriate Tag to add to themessage. Functionally, the filtering algorithm ensures that differentTags, each in the same user-selected category, are added to subsequentmessages transmitted using the system, and generally that various of thedifferent Tags available in a category are added to different messages.More specifically the filtering algorithm employs one or more of severalparameters to select, from all of the Tags available in a category, theTag or Tags to be added to the current message. As stated above, theselection of Tag is not directly related to input from the sender of themessage, meaning that these parameters are essentially unrelated to thecontent of the MMS message (the content being parts 512, 514 shown inFIG. 5).

Instead, these parameters include one or more of,

1. The sender identity (either sending terminal T1 or informationservice (see below)), as identified in the MMS message header 504 (part506), and data associated with the sender identity, such as:

-   -   a. data identifying a stage in the category the sender is, as        determined by the number and/or type of Tags previously sent by        the sender;    -   b. data identifying sender characteristics, such as age, sex,        etc.;    -   c. current context of the sender (i.e. home or at work);    -   d. whether the sender has explicitly opted out of a particular        category

2. The recipient identity, as identified in the M message header 504(art 508) and data associated with the recipient identity, such as:

-   -   a. data identifying a stage in the category the recipient is, as        determined by the number and/or type of campaign messages        previously received by the recipient;    -   b. data identifying recipient characteristics, such as age, sex,        etc.;    -   c. current context of the recipient (home or at work);    -   d. whether the recipient has explicitly opted out of a        particular category,

3. A combination of sender and recipient identities (as per 1. and 2.above);

4. The current time and/or date;

5. Scheduling data for Tags;

6. Data relating to events occurring at that date or time (so that theselecting software 401 is arranged to access various electronicallyavailable entertainment listings, such as TV, films etc.);

7. A random selection parameter, causing the selection to vary betweenmessages.

In order to select Tags on the basis of on one or more of theseparameters, each of the Tag is characterized in some manner, and indeed,such characteristics data are stored in DB1 together with dataidentifying the Tags themselves.

Selection can also be based on the content of he MMS message itselfDarts 512, 514). For example, Tags may be linked to certain words, orphrases, that appear in the message 500—e.g. if the user content part512 includes the word “beer” (so that the message could be, for example,“Hi Steve, meet me at the Crown for a beer or six!”), one of the Tagslinked to the word “beer” could be selected by the selecting software401 at sub-step 805. Additionally or alternatively selection can bebased on the location of the sender and/or recipient. For example, ifthe sender is identified to be at a cricket match, then, assuming thereto be a mapping between cricket and Tags, one of the Tags linked to acricket location could be selected at sub-step 805.

If the selecting software 401 determines, at sub-step 801, there to bemultiple recipients, the selecting software 401 may either select adifferent Tag for each recipient or may select one that best matches thecharacteristics of all of the recipients The latter may be achieved byevaluating characteristics of Tags against characteristics of eachrecipient, quantifying the evaluation into a score for each Tag andselecting whichever Tag has the highest score, In the event that therecipients and sender have previously selected categories that aredifferent with respect to one another, the selecting software 401 caneither only select Tags within the category corresponding to the sender,or identify the category most common to all recipients and sender andselect Tags within that identified category.

The categories displayed on the Web page 1000 for selection therefromcan be dependent on characteristics of the subscriber. For example, whensubscribing to the message modification service (step 201) theregistration software 301 may ask the subscriber for his home, orpreferred, location. As described above, these data are stored indatabase DB1 as user data at step 202 b, so that, when a subscribersubsequently logs in to select a category, the category selectionsoftware 303 can display only those categories that match thesubscriber's location. Other parameters can be used when determiningwhich categories to display.

Whilst in the above embodiment settings corresponding to the proxymessage server MMSC_1 are sent via an OTA message, they couldalternatively be embedded in the terminal's SIM card, so that thesubscriber receives and changes SIM when he has subscribed to theservice. As a further alternative, the user could be notified of thesettings and manually change them.

As an alternative to the proxy message server MMSC_1 implementation, thepresent invention could be installed as a filtering application (notshown) on the operator's message server MMSC_OP, In the event that theprocessing load associated with the selecting and modification ofmessages becomes significant, the data messaging system 1 could alsoinclude a separate, secondary MMS message server (not shown), which isconfigured with the selecting software 401, message modificationsoftware 403 and the EAIF 405. In such an arrangement the filteringapplication running on the operator's message server MMSC_OP could bearranged to pass messages that are identified to have been received froma subscriber to the service to this secondary MMS message server. Ineither of these arrangements the step of sending an OTA message tore-set MMSC settings in the subscriber's terminal would not benecessary.

As stated above, the arrangement shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, and theforegoing description is specifically tailored to the sending of MMSmessages. However, the idea of modifying a message without requiringdirect input from the sender, instead basing the modification on someparameter that is extrinsic to the content of the message, can beapplied to other message types, such as SMS, email and streamed data(e.g. multicast data). The arrangement of the data messaging system 1can be expected to vary, depending on the type of message to be sent,and FIGS. 11-14, together with the following description, brieflyoutlines alternative arrangements of the data messaging system. In thesefigures, where the functionality is identical or equivalent to thatdescribed with reference to FIG. 2, identical reference numerals areused; if there is additional, or substantial differences infunctionality, different reference numerals are used.

The data messaging system 1 shown in FIG. 11 is suitable for sending MMSmessages or email messages. In this arrangement, the settings sent atstep 202 a correspond to a proxy WAP gateway G_Proxy, which hasconventional WAP gateway functionality plus an SMTP server combined withthe store-and-forward software 410, selecting software 401, messagemodification software 403 and the BA 405. The store-and-forward software410 essentially includes components that are configured to store andtransfer emails accordance with the SMTP protocol and componentsconfigured in accordance with MMS message handling (described above)(for information specifically related to SMTP issues, the reader isreferred to Request For Comments (RFC) 2821, available from the IEEE athttp://www.rfc-editor.org/).

The data messaging system 1 shown in FIG. 12 is suitable for asubscriber sending SMS messages. In this arrangement the settings on theterminal T1 corresponding to the SMSC have been modified in some manner,so that outgoing SMS messages are directed to the proxy short messageserver SMSC_1. The message modification software 403 is arranged toeither embed the content of the received message (arts 512, 514) into anMMS message (which then includes selected parts 916, 918), therebyeffectively changing an incoming SMS message into an outgoing MMSmessage, or, if the terminal corresponding to the recipient is notMMS-enabled, to modify the received SMS message so that it includesselected parts 916, 918 (or ASCII character versions thereof), andforward the modified message as an SMS message.

FIG. 13 shows a yet further arrangement of the data messaging service 1that is suitable for sending SMS or email messages that have emanated asSMS messages. In this arrangement, registering with the messagemodification service involves firstly sending an SMS to a numberassociated with the service (steps 1301, 1302), ten logging into a webpage associated with the service in order to enter the various userdetails required by the service (step 1303). In this arrangement theselecting software 401 and message modification software 403 are storedon, and processed by, the WAP and Web services server S1, which thusadditionally acts as a store-and-forward server.

FIG. 14 shows a yet further arrangement of the data messaging service 1that is suitable for sending multicast data to the terminal T1. In thisarrangement, the subscriber registers with the service as describedabove, but the service is linked to a router in the network that isresponsible for the distribution of multicast data to IP-enabledreceivers. In the case where the multicast content provider isdistributing its multicast content in accordance with PIM-Sparse modeprotocol, there is a rendez-point router (shown as RP router 1401 inFIG. 14), which receives “Join” requests from receivers, and joins themto the distribution of multicast data emanating from the source (shownas source router 1403). In this arrangement a conventional RP router1401 is modified so as to include the selecting software 401 and messagemodification software 403 as described for the other embodiments, whichcollectively add content data (steps 205, 206) to the multicast content.In this example the subscriber associated with terminal T1 is therecipient of the data and the source 1401 is the sender. For moreinformation regarding the PIM Sparse Mode protocol, the reader isreferred to “Multicast networking and applications”, by C. KennethMiller, Published by Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-30979-3.

FIG. 15 shows another arrangement of the data messaging service 1 inwhich messages are sent to the server S1 via gateway GPRS support nodeGGSN 1 as data packets (steps 1504, 1505), and the server S1 modifiesthe message (step 1506). Having modified the message, the server S1stores the same and sends a notifying SMS message (step 1507) to therecipient; in response to receipt of the notification message theterminal T2 has the opportunity to retrieve the stored message from heserver S1 (steps 1508, 1509). In the arrangement shown in FIG. 15, anapplication is sent to the terminal T1 from the server S1 in response toreceipt of a registration message (steps 1501, 1503) and both the user'sdemographic information and any subsequently composed messages arecaptured by the application and then sent onto the server S1 via GGSN1.It will be appreciated that the demographic data could instead byentered via a WAP page that is sent to the terminal T1 as describedabove in the context of the foregoing embodiments.

The foregoing embodiments describe arrangements for modifying messagesemanating from individual subscribers. However, the invention can alsobe applied to modify data messages emanating from an information source,and a suitable arrangement for performing such a modification is shownin FIG. 16. Parts shown in FIG. 16 that are identical to those shown inFIGS. 1-15 are allocated identical reference numbers and identifiers andwill not be described in any further detail; as for the figures relatingto modification of personal messages, the arrows indicate data flowswithin the data messaging system I and the blocks indicate componentsthereof.

In this aspect of the invention messages typically originate from aninformation service provided by an automated software applicationrunning on a server connected to the network, which is generallyreferred to herein as a content provider. in the arrangement shown inFIG. 16, the data messaging system 1 comprises WAP gateway G_OP; aplurality of content servers S01, S02, S03 configured to generate andtransmit messages to a terminal T1 in accordance with specifiedconditions; a services server S1 arranged to receive requests from theterminal T1 for content from one or more of the content servers S01,S02, S03; first and second store-and-forward message servers MMSC_1,MMSC_OP; and a database DB1, arranged to store data in respect ofsubscribers, terminal T1 and content data. Each of the content serversS01, S02, S03 is associated with a particular content provider.

In one arrangement the first message server MMSC_1, together with theservices server S1, are arranged to operate inside an operator'snetwork. The services server S1 handles requests for content data fromthe terminal T1 either on a per-request basis or on an on-going basis asspecified by a user of the terminal T1 when subscribing to the contentservice, sending requests onto an appropriate one of the content serversS01, S02, S03 accordingly. The server S1 is also arranged to receivedetails of those users who have additionally subscribed to a messagemodification service according to an embodiment of the invention, and tothis end is configured as, and operates in accordance with, thearrangement shown in FIG. 3.

Each content server S01, S02, S03 is configured in such a way that MMSmessages destined for a subscriber to the message modification serviceare sent to the first message server MMSC_1 rather than to the second(network operator's main) message server MMSC_OP. Accordingly dataidentifying the address of the first message server MMSC_1 areconfigured in each of the content servers S01, S02, S03 so that MMSmessages emanating therefrom are sent to the first message server MMSC_1in the first instance. The steps involved in modifying a message by thedata messaging system 1 will now be described, assuming that the user ofTerminal T1 has placed a request with server S1 for data relating toestimated departure times of trains departing from London Victoriadestined for Lyme Regis at 17:30. Assuming a request for thisinformation to have been received by content server S01, a MMS messagecomprising this information is sent by the content server S01 at 17:30(step 1603). At step 1604, the MMS message is received and stored by theproxy message server MMSC_1, in accordance with conventional techniquesand at step 1605 the selecting software 401 selects content data fromthe database DB1 as described above with reference to FIG. 8. Once thecontent data have been selected, the message modification software 403modifies, at step 1606, the MMS that was stored at step 1604 so as toinclude at least part of the selected content data and the modified MMSis transmitted to the network operator's message server MMSC_OP at step1607, the message being subsequently delivered to the recipient (T1) inaccordance with conventional methods.

As shown in FIG. 16, the services saver S1 is typically managed by thenetwork operator, whilst the content servers S01, S02, S03 are managedby third parties. However, each content server S01, S02, S03 can have aservices server associated therewith, in which case both the serviceserver S1 and the content server will be managed by third parties; suchan arrangement is shown in FIG. 17. Whilst in the first aspect of theinvention settings corresponding to the proxy message server MMSC_1 aresent via an OTA message to user terminals (since this is where themessages originate), in embodiments according to this second aspect ofthe invention (where messages originate from content servers S01, 802,S03) the content servers could be notified of the settings, e.g. via anemail or SMS message and automatically change their proxy serversettings in response to receipt thereof.

It is to be noted that, whilst in the embodiments above the content dataare branded media content, the invention could be applied to many othertypes of content data. For example, a service according to the inventionmay be used in tracking the eventual super-distribution of multimediacontent across different operators, in which case special tags (e.g. inSMIL files and watermarks in multimedia files), each being associatedwith an operator, could be used.

1. A method of modifying a data message during transmission through adata communications network, the data communications network beingarranged to deliver messages under control of a network operator andcomprising a first store-and-forward network node, the firststore-and-forward network node being arranged to store said datamessages and forward the same to a recipient in dependence on statusdata corresponding to a terminal associated therewith, the methodcomprising: receiving a message at a second store-and-forward node.wherein the second store-and-forward network node is different from saidfirst store-and-forward network node; arranging for the message to bemodified before being forwarded from the second store-and-forward node;and transmitting the message to the first store-and-forward network nodefor forwarding to the recipient.
 2. The method according to claim 1,wherein the message has a message body comprising first data andtransmission data identifying a destination of said message wherein thefirst data have been created by an information service, the methodfurther comprising: selecting second data and including the selectedsecond data in the message body, whereby to modify the message beforebeing forwarded from the second store-and-forward node.
 3. The methodaccording to claim 2, wherein said message body is created in responseto conditions satisfying one or more criteria.
 4. The method accordingto claim 2, wherein the second data is selected on the basis of at leastone parameter that is extrinsic to the first data.
 5. The methodaccording to claim 2, wherein the first data are created by anapplication running on a server providing said information service. 6.The method according to claim 2, further comprising selecting saidsecond data from a store of selectable data.
 7. The method according toclaim 6, wherein the selectable data are specified in advance of receiptof the said message in the second network node.
 8. The method accordingto claim 2, further comprising selecting said second data in accordancewith a time and/or data associated with said message.
 9. The methodaccording to claim 8, further comprising selecting said second data inaccordance with a time of transmission or reception of said message. 10.The method according to claim 8, further comprising reviewing a scheduleidentifying entertainment activities, and selecting said second data inaccordance with an entertainment activity that overlaps, at least inpart, a time of transmission or reception of said message.
 11. Themethod according to claim 2, further comprising selecting said seconddata from advertisement data.
 12. A method of modifying a data messageduring transmission through a data communications network, the datacommunications network being arranged to deliver messages under controlof a network operator and comprising a first store-and-forward networknode, the first store-and-forward network node being arranged to storesaid data messages and forward the same to a recipient in dependence onstatus data corresponding to a terminal associated therewith, the methodcomprising: receiving a message at a second store-and-forward nodewherein the second store-and-forward network node is different from saidfirst store-and-forward network node; arranging for the message to bemodified before being forwarded from the second store-and-forward node;transmitting the message to the first store-and-forward network node forforwarding to the recipient; and identifying an information service andselecting said second data on the basis of one or more characteristicsof the identified service.
 13. The method according to claim 12, whereinthe message has a message body comprising first data and transmissiondata identifying a destination of said message, wherein the first datahave been created by an information service, the method furthercomprising: selecting second data and including the selected second datain the message body, whereby to modify the message before beingforwarded from the second store-and-forward node.
 14. The methodaccording to claim 12, wherein said message body is created in responseto conditions satisfying one or more criteria.
 15. The method accordingto claim 12, wherein the second data is selected on the basis of atleast one parameter that is extrinsic to the first data.
 16. The methodaccording to claim 12, wherein the first data are created by anapplication running on a sever providing said information service. 17.The method according to claim 12, wherein selecting said second datafrom a store of selectable data.
 18. The method according to claim 12,wherein the selectable data are specified in advance of receipt of thesaid message at the second network node.
 19. The method according toclaim 12, further comprising selecting said second data in accordancewith a time and/or data associated with said message.
 20. The methodaccording to claim 12, further comprising selecting said second data inaccordance with a time of transmission or reception of said message. 21.The method according to claim 12, further comprising reviewing aschedule identifying entertainment activities, and selecting said seconddata in accordance with an entertainment activity that overlaps, atleast in part, with a time of transmission or reception of said message.22. The method according to claim 12, further comprising selecting saidsecond data from advertisement data.
 23. A method of modifying a datamessage during transmission through a data communications network, thedata communications network being arranged to deliver messages undercontrol of a network operator and comprising a first store-and-forwardnetwork node, the first store-and-forward network node being arranged tostore said data messages and forward the same to a recipient independence on status data corresponding to a terminal associatedtherewith. the method comprising: receiving a message at a secondstore-and-forward node, wherein the second store-and-forward networknode is different from said first store-and-forward network node;arranging for the message to be modified before being forwarded from thesecond store-and-forward node: transmitting the message to the firststore-and-forward network node for forwarding to the recipient; andselecting second data and including the selected second data in themessage body, whereby to modify the message before being forwarded fromthe second store-and-forward node, including identifying the recipientof the said message on the basis of the transmission data and selectingsaid second data on the basis of one or more characteristics of theidentified recipient, wherein the message has a message body comprisingfirst data and transmission data identifying a destination of saidmessage, wherein the first data have been created by an informationservice.
 24. The method according to claim 23, wherein said message bodyis created in response to conditions satisfying one or more criteria.25. The method according to claim 23, wherein the second data isselected on the basis of at least one parameter that is extrinsic to thefirst data.
 26. The method according to claim 23, wherein the first dataare created by an application running on a server providing saidinformation service.
 27. The method according to claim 23, furthercomprising selecting said second data from a store of selectable data.28. The method according to claim 23, wherein the selectable data arespecified in advance of receipt of the said message at the secondnetwork node.
 29. The method according to claim 23, further comprisingselecting said second data in accordance with a time and/or dataassociated with the said message.
 30. The method according to claim 23,further comprising selecting said second data in accordance with a timeof transmission or reception of the said message.
 31. The methodaccording to claim 23, further comprising reviewing a scheduleidentifying entertainment activities, and selecting said second data inaccordance with an entertainment activity that overlaps, at least inpart, with a time of transmission or reception of the said message. 32.The method according to claim 23, further comprising selecting saidsecond data from advertisement data.
 33. The method according to claim23, further comprising identifying an information service and selectingsaid second data on the basis of one or more characteristics of theidentified service.
 34. The method according to claim 33, wherein thecharacteristics include any one of location, context, weather, age, andpreference information associated with the recipient.
 35. A method ofmodifying a data message during transmission through a datacommunications network, the data communications network being arrangedto deliver messages under control of a network operator and comprising afirst store-and-forward network node, the first store-and-forwardnetwork node being arranged to store said data messages and forward thesame to a recipient in dependence on status data corresponding to aterminal associated therewith, the method comprising: receiving amessage at a second store-and-forward node, wherein the secondstore-and-for-ward network node is different from said firststore-and-forward network node; arranging for the message to be modifiedbefore being forwarded from the second store-and-forward node; andtransmitting the message to the first store-and-forward network node forforwarding to the recipient; selecting second data and including theselected second data in the message body, whereby to modify the messagebefore being forwarded from the second store-and-forward node; andcomparing the selected data with data identifying subject matter thatthe recipient is not interested in, and, in the event that the selecteddata matches data corresponding to the identified subject matter, themessage is not modified prior to transmission to the recipient, whereinthe message has a message body comprising first data and transmissiondata identifying a destination of said message, wherein the first datahave been created by an information service.
 36. The method according toclaim 35, wherein the second data is selected on the basis of at leastone parameter that is extrinsic to the first data.
 37. The methodaccording to claim 35, wherein the first data are created by anapplication running on a server providing said information service. 38.The method according to claim 35, further comprising selecting saidsecond data in accordance with a time and/or data associated with saidmessage.
 39. The method according to claim 35, further comprisingidentifying an information service and selecting said second data on thebasis of one or more characteristics of the identified service.
 40. Themethod according to claim 35, further comprising identifying therecipient of the said message on the basis of the transmission data andselecting said second data on the basis of one or more characteristicsof the identified recipient.
 41. A method of modifying a data messageduring transmission through a data communications network, the datacommunications network being arranged to deliver messages under controlof a network operator and comprising a first store-and-forward networknode, the first store-and-forward network node being arranged to storesaid data messages and forward the same to a recipient in dependence onstatus data corresponding to a terminal associated therewith, the methodcomprising: receiving a message at a second store-and-forward node,wherein the second store-and-forward network node is different from saidfirst store-and-forward network node; arranging for the message to bemodified before being forwarded from the second store-and-forward node;transmitting the message to the first store-and-forward network node forforwarding to the recipient; and recording the number of modifiedmessages that have been transmitted to a recipient and comparing therecorded number with a specified number of messages, and, in the eventthat the recorded number of messages matches the specified number ofmessages, the message is not modified prior to transmission to therecipient.
 42. The method according to claim 41, wherein the message hasa message body comprising first data and transmission data identifying adestination of said message, wherein the first data have been created byan information service, the method further comprising: selecting seconddata and including the selected second data in the message body, wherebyto modify the message before being forwarded from the secondstore-and-forward node.
 43. The method according to claim 41, whereinthe second data is selected on the basis of at least one parameter thatis extrinsic to the first data.
 44. The method according to claim 41,wherein the first data are created by an application running on a serverproviding said information service.
 45. The method according to claim41, further comprising selecting said second data in accordance with atime and/or data associated with said message.
 46. The method accordingto claim 41, further comprising identifying the information service andselecting said second data on the basis of one or more characteristicsof the identified service.
 47. The method according to claim 41, furthercomprising identifying the recipient of the said message oil the basisof the transmission data and selecting said second data on the basis ofone or more characteristics of the identified recipient.
 48. The methodaccording to claim 41, further comprising comparing the selected datawith data identifying subject matter that the recipient is notinterested in, and, in the event that the selected data matches datacorresponding to the identified subject matter, the message is notmodified prior to transmission to the recipient.
 49. A method ofmodifying a data message during transmission through a datacommunications network, the data communications network being arrangedto deliver messages under control of a network operator and comprising afirst store-and-forward network node, the first store-and-forwardnetwork node being arranged to store said data messages and forward thesame to a recipient in dependence on status data corresponding to aterminal associated therewith, the method comprising: receiving amessage at a second store-and-forward node, wherein the secondstore-and-forward network node is different from said firststore-and-forward network node; arranging for the message to be modifiedbefore being, forwarded from the second store-and-forward node; andtransmitting the message to the first store-and-forward network node forforwarding to the recipient; selecting second data and including theselected second data in the message body, whereby to modify the messagebefore being forwarded from the second store-and-forward node; recordingthe data that have been included in the transmitted messages andcomparing the recorded data with the data selected for inclusion in themessage, and, in the event that the recorded data match the selecteddata, the repeating the step of selecting data, wherein the message hasa message body comprising first data and transmission data identifying adestination of said message, wherein the first data have been created byan information service.
 50. The method according to claim 49, whereinthe second data is selected on the basis of at least one parameter thatis extrinsic to the first data.
 51. The method according to claim 49,wherein the first data are created by an application running on a serverproviding said information service.
 52. The method according to claim49, further comprising including selecting said second data inaccordance with a time and/or data associated with said message.
 53. Themethod according to claim 50, further comprising g identifying aninformation service and selecting said second data on the basis of oneor more characteristics of the identified service.
 54. The methodaccording to claim 50, further comprising identifying the recipient ofsaid message on the basis of the transmission data and selecting saidsecond data on the basis of one or more characteristics of theidentified recipient.
 55. The method according to claim 50, furthercomprising comparing the selected data with data identifying subjectmatter that the recipient is not interested in, and, in the event thatthe selected data matches data corresponding to the identified subjectmatter, the message is not modified prior to transmission to therecipient.
 56. The method according to claim 50, further comprisingrecording the number of modified messages that have been transmitted toa recipient and comparing the recorded number with a specified number ofmessages, and, in the event that the recorded number of messages matchesthe specified number of messages, the message is not modified prior totransmission to the recipient.
 57. A method of modifying a data messageduring transmission through a data communications network, the datacommunications network being arranged to deliver messages under controlof a network operator and comprising a first store-and-forward networknode, the first store-and-forward network node being arranged to storesaid data messages and forward the same to a recipient in dependence onstatus data corresponding to a terminal associated therewith, the methodcomprising: receiving a message at a second store-and-forward node,wherein the second store-and-forward network node is different from saidfirst store-and-forward network node; arranging for the message to bemodified before being forwarded from the second store-and-forward node;and transmitting the message to the first store-and-forward network nodefor forwarding to the recipient; selecting second data and including theselected second data in the message body, whereby to modify the messagebefore being forwarded from the second store-and-forward node; andreceiving location data indicative of a location and selecting data onthe basis of the location data, wherein the message has a message bodycomprising first data and transmission data identifying a destination ofsaid message, wherein the first data have been created by an informationservice.
 58. The method according to claim 57, wherein said message bodyis created in response to conditions satisfying one or more criteria.59. The method according to claim 57, wherein the second data isselected on the basis of at least one parameter that is extrinsic to thefirst data.
 60. The method according to claim 57, wherein the first dataare created by an application running on a server providing saidinformation service.
 61. The method according to claim 57, furthercomprising selecting said second data from a store of selectable data.62. The method according to claim 57, wherein the selectable data arespecified in advance of receipt of the said message at the secondnetwork node.
 63. The method according to claim 57, further comprisingselecting said second data in accordance with a time and/or dataassociated with the said message.
 64. The method according to claim 57,further comprising selecting said second data in accordance with a timeof transmission or reception of the said message.
 65. The methodaccording to claim 57, further comprising reviewing a scheduleidentifying entertainment activities, and selecting said second data inaccordance with an entertainment activity that overlaps, at least inpart, with a time of transmission or reception of said message.
 66. Themethod according to claim 57, further comprising selecting said seconddata from advertisement data.
 67. The method according to claim 57,further comprising identifying an information service and selecting saidsecond data on the basis of one or more characteristics of theidentified service.
 68. The method according to claim 57, furthercomprising identifying the recipient of the said message on the basis ofthe transmission data and selecting said second data on the basis of oneor more characteristics of the identified recipient.
 69. The methodaccording to claim 68, wherein the characteristics include any one oflocation, context, weather, age, and preference information associatedwith the recipient.
 70. The method according to claim 57, furthercomprising comparing the selected data with data identifying subjectmatter that the recipient is not interested in, and, in the event thatthe selected data matches data corresponding to the identified subjectmatter, the message is not modified prior to transmission to therecipient.
 71. The method according to claim 57, further comprisingrecording the number of modified messages that have been transmitted toa recipient and comparing the recorded number with a specified number ofmessages, and, in the event that the recorded number of messages matchesthe specified number of messages, the message is not modified prior totransmission to the recipient.
 72. The method according to claim 57,further comprising recording the data that have been included in thetransmitted messages and comparing the recorded data with the dataselected for inclusion in the message, and, in the event that therecorded data match the selected data, the repeating the step ofselecting data.
 73. The method according to claim 57, includingselecting data at random.
 74. A method of modifying a data messageduring transmission through a data communications network, the datacommunications network being arranged to deliver messages under controlof a network operator and comprising a first store-and-forward networknode, the first store-and-forward network node being arranged to storesaid data messages and forward the same to a recipient in dependence onstatus data corresponding to a terminal associated therewith, the methodcomprising: receiving a message at a second store-and-forward node,wherein the second store-and-forward network node is different from saidfirst store-and-forward network node; arranging for the message to bemodified before being forwarded from the second store-and-forward node;transmitting the message to the first store-and-forward network node forforwarding to the recipient; and selecting second data and including theselected second data in the message body, whereby to modify the messagebefore being forwarded from the second store-and-forward node, whereinthe message sent through the data communications network is a shortmessage service message and the modifying step includes retrieving thefirst data therefrom, creating a multimedia message service message andtransmitting said multimedia message service message from the secondstore-and-forward node, and wherein the message has a message bodycomprising first data and transmission data identifying a destination ofsaid message, wherein the first data have been created by an informationservice.
 75. The method according to claim 74, wherein the second datais selected on the basis of at least one parameter that is extrinsic tothe first data.
 76. The method according to claim 75, wherein the firstdata are created by an application running on a server providing saidinformation service.
 77. The method according to claim 76, furthercomprising selecting said second data in accordance with a time and/ordata associated with said message.
 78. The method according to claim 77,further comprising selecting said second data from advertisement data.79. The method according to claim 74, further comprising identifying aninformation service and selecting said second data on the basis of oneor more characteristics of the identified service.
 80. The methodaccording to claim 74, further comprising identifying the recipient ofthe said message on the basis of the transmission data and selectingsaid second data on the basis of one or more characteristics of theidentified recipient.
 81. The method according to claim 74, furthercomprising comparing the selected data with data identifying subjectmatter that the recipient is not interested in, and, in the event thatthe selected data matches data corresponding to the identified subjectmatter, the message is not modified prior to transmission to therecipient.
 82. The method according to claim 74, further comprisingrecording the number Of modified messages that have been transmitted toa recipient and comparing the recorded number with a specified number ofmessages, and, in the event that the recorded number of messages matchesthe specified number of messages, the message is not modified prior totransmission to the recipient.
 83. The method according to claim 74,further comprising recording the data that have been included in thetransmitted messages and comparing the recorded data with the dataselected for inclusion in the message, and, in the event that therecorded data match the selected data, the repeating the step ofselecting data.
 84. The method according to claim 74, further comprisingreceiving location data indicative of a location and selecting data onthe basis of the location data.